(Security): 'West Africa, Sahel Set to Reach 10-Year High in Food Insecurity'

 

Hunger is soaring and spreading across West Africa, with some 48 million people, a 10-year-high, facing food insecurity in the conflict-riddled region, the United Nations warned. The combined effects of conflict, climate shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic and high food prices, continue to drive up hunger and malnutrition in the region.

U.N. officials said that for the first time, some 45,000 people in the Sahel region, the arid expanse below the Sahara Desert, are on the brink of starvation, one step away from famine. The vast majority facing catastrophic levels of hunger, 42,000, are in Burkina Faso, the officials reported.

The data further showed that 16.5 million children under five are set to face acute malnutrition this year, including nearly five million who are at risk of debilitating severe malnutrition. Their numbers represent a staggering 83% rise in global acute malnutrition compared to the 2015 to 2022 average.

World Food Programme (WFP) alongside the Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, have renewed their call for greater support to Governments in the region.

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